On the bridge which spans the railway line and which provides access to the chemical platform, they installed a tent, tables, flags and water collectors as obstacles to prevent the passage of vehicles. With a message written: “Salindres, Solvay killed me. »
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For more than ten days, employees of Solvay, a factory specializing in fluorine chemistry, which notably produces trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) for the manufacture of pesticides and medicines, have been on a renewable strike. They are protesting against the closure of the site announced for 2025, and the elimination of 68 jobs.
Around twenty employees, working in the GIE branch (structure which processes the discharge from all the factories on the chemical site, also owned by Solvay), will remain in activity. Saturday October 5 in the morning, they were joined by more than 300 residents who had come with their families from neighboring villages to take part in a march. Because the announcement, which came suddenly on September 24, caused turmoil in an entire employment area.
Eternal pollutants
A first wave of departures could take place as early as January. “No one expected this from a company that pays 400,000 euros per year to its shareholders”explains Damien Olry, CGT union representative, who does not believe in the economic argument put forward by management: “They are closing to avoid an avalanche of scandals. » Enzo Ferroudji, another employee, “disgusted and angry”wants to “beat to the end”. In this factory, the average age is 43 years old. “Many of us have mortgages. Some have to repay 1,200 euros per month. We have families, responsibilities. »
Salindres, a town of 3,700 inhabitants located to the north of Gard, in the old Alesian mining basin, was built around this large industrial platform, which appeared 169 years ago. “We know that one job in chemistry means four indirect jobs. The death of Solvay is the death of Haut-Gard”estimates Jean-Louis Peyren, secretary of the FNIC-CGT. In this part of the department strongly marked by the history of mines, residents have observed one closure after another for more than twenty years: Jallatte, Richard Ducros, Péchiney, Alcatel, Crouzey.
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But Salindres is also an area of extraordinary contamination with eternal pollutants, as revealed in February The World. With an exceptional concentration and previously never detected in the soils of this sector. The cause? Big doubts weigh on Solvay’s activity. “99.99% of the substances found in the waters around the site are manufactured by Solvay, notably TFA and triflic acid”declared members of Générations Futures when the results were announced.
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